BLAME ME FOR ROO BAN

Wayne Rooney looks at the Europa League trophy as he arrives for his hearing

We're grateful to the panel and Wayne will now be available for the final group game of Euro 2012 against Ukraine

Club England managing director Adrian Bevington

UEFA yesterday reduced the striker’s three-match ban by one game at an appeal hearing in Switzerland, following his red card against Montenegro in October.

Rooney will now be available for England’s final group game next summer against joint hosts Ukraine on June 19.

But it was Capello’s personal plea to the appeal panel which proved decisive yesterday.

The Italian shouldered the blame for Rooney’s moment of madness after telling the hearing he should have taken Rooney off at half-time in Podgorica as he was not in the right frame of mind.

The vital qualifier came just 24 hours after the ­striker’s father and uncle were arrested in relation to a betting inquiry.

But Capello’s decision to keep his star player on the pitch backfired when he was sent off in the 74th minute of the 2-2 draw for kicking Montenegro’s ­Miodrag Dzudovic.

Capello told the 90-minute hearing in Nyon that ­Rooney, 26, was paying the price for his own error of judgment.

His decision to take the blame worked when UEFA chiefs decided to suspend the third game of the ban until December 2015.

That means Rooney will only serve the extra one-game ban if he gets sent off again during the next four years, while he is on England duty in a ­competitive match.

But FA chiefs and a costly team of FOUR lawyers who represented Rooney at the hearing were left red-faced after at first misunderstanding the decision.

They announced that the final game of Rooney’s ­original ban would be ­reinstated if he was sent off for Manchester United in Europe – prompting UEFA to correct them.

Club England managing director Adrian Bevington said: “ We're grateful to the panel and Wayne will now be available for the final group game of Euro 2012 against Ukraine.”

Rooney said he was pleased with the outcome before he was bundled into a waiting car to join the rest of his Manchester United team-mates beaten 2-1 by Basel on Wednesday night for their flight back to ­Manchester.